Defiance

The latest “important” historical drama from Edward Zwick, Defiance follows three WWII-era Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig’s Tuvia, Liev Schreiber’s Zus, and Jamie Bell’s Asael) as they hide out within a forested clearing and, along with dozens of fellow survivors, eventually stage a rebellion against the Nazis. Zwick, working from a script cowritten with Clayton Frohman, slowly-but-surely squanders the admittedly intriguing premise by offering up a bloated midsection that’s almost disastrously uneventful, as the various characters are forced to bide their time by participating in a series of increasingly pointless endeavors (eg weddings, spirited arguments, etc). The frustratingly repetitive structure – the fighters engage in battle, return to the forest for downtime, engage in another battle, etc, etc – leads to a distinctly oppressive atmosphere that’s exacerbated by an absurdly overlong running time, with Zwick’s sporadically hackneyed directorial choices only compounding the movie’s various problems (eg he cuts between a wedding celebration and a Nazi-killing rampage). And while there are admittedly a few compelling interludes sprinkled throughout the proceedings (eg Tuvia avenges his parents’ murder by single-handedly taking down a room full of Nazis, in a scene that’s admittedly far more thrilling than anything within the latest James Bond adventure), Defiance comes off as a hopelessly transparent bit of Oscar bait that ultimately does a disservice to the real-life figures that inspired this story.

*1/2 out of ****